Agglomeration Economies among Animal and Crop Producers in Nigeria: A Panacea for Diversification and Sustainable Economic Growth in South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

This paper investigates agglomeration economies among Farmers in cluster areas of South Eastern Nigeria as a tool for economic emancipation with a special interest in diversification and growth. It also identified other vital roles agglomeration plays in developing economies like Nigeria. These are not only as tools for poverty alleviation and diversification of sources of livelihood among farmers but also tools for employment generation and sustainable economic growth. This paper was motivated by the quest to provide urgent policy recommendations for a sustainable approach to agricultural development in South Eastern Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to: (i) describe the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents; (ii) ascertain the perception of the farmers on diversification and other benefits from agglomeration locations in the region, and (iii) ascertain the challenges militating against diversification and economic growth as benefits from agglomeration clusters. Descriptive survey research design and structured questionnaire were adopted for this study. Pearson's product moment correlation method and split half technique were adopted to determine the internal consistency of the instrument on 150 questionnaires retrieved and reliability coefficient of 0.91 was obtained. Objective (i) and (ii) were realized using descriptive statistics and charts while Objective (iii) was realized using weighted mean, standard deviation and rankings. Majority of the farmers were within the active age of 40-49 years. Basic education (69.3%) was also pronounced and most farmers operate either medium or large-scale farming. Farmers were of the views that they had benefited immensely from agglomeration economies especially in areas of transportation, diversification, access to information and innovation as well as access to credit. Fear of risks and uncertainties, dependency on rain-fed farming, and limited access to long-term credit ranked highest among the critical challenges limiting them from diversification and economic growth potentials in agglomeration.